Ireland up two places in World Rankings after Aussie triumph

Ireland's 15-6 victory over Australia has seen them move up two places to sixth in the IRB World Rankings as Australia drop one place to third.

Mon, 19 Sep, 2011 - 21:34

Ireland's 15-6 victory over Australia has seen them move up two places to sixth in the IRB World Rankings as Australia drop one place to third.

Ireland's first World Cup win over Australia was enough to reclaim two of the four places Declan Kidney’s men dropped after losing all four of their warm-up matches in August, a run which saw them slump to eight, equalling their lowest ever ranking.

A bigger winning margin could have lifted Ireland to third, incidentally their highest position since the IRB World Rankings were introduced in October 2003, but the defeat was enough to see Australia surrender second spot to South Africa.

England (4th) and France (5th) are now the only northern hemisphere teams ahead of Ireland with Scotland slipping to eight despite a 100% record so far in the World Cup, Wales have also fallen one spot to seventh.

Fiji have climbed one place to 14th as a result of Tonga's defeat to Canada earlier in the week.

Tonga have dropped three places to a disappointing 15th after the 25-20 loss to Canada in Whangarei last Wednesday.

The Canucks have reached 11th in the World for the first time in their history courtesy of Samoa's 17-10 loss to Wales.

IRB World Rankings 19 September 2011:

1. (1) New Zealand 90.55

2. (3) South Africa 86.71

3. (2) Australia 84.84

4. (4) England 83.99

5. (5) France 83.78

6. (8) Ireland 82.50

7. (6) Wales 80.73

8. (7) Scotland 79.12